Guayaquil and The Galapagos Islands: 13-21 September.

We took the bus from our beach-break in Mancora (Peru) up into Ecuador. The border crossing was straightforward: we all piled off the bus on the Peruvian side of the border to get stamped out and then went through the same process on the Ecuadorian side to get stamped in. Fortunately we got waived through both customs checks so didn't even have to take our bags off of the bus.

We weren't long over the border when the desert that characterised the Peruvian coast started to give way to more greenery and before long we were driving through lush banana plantations, dotted with the ramshackle homes of the plantation workers. It was a long day on the bus and we arrived at our destination, the city of Guayaquil, after dark at the massive new bus station on the edge of town - we've seen smaller airport terminals! Compared to the poor homes we'd seen from the bus windows in the countryside, Guayaquil was a real contrast with new cars on the roads of what is clearly a thriving city; it's Ecuador's largest city and it's main commercial and transport hub.

We intended to stay for three nights which would give us two full days to look around and to research trips out to the Galapagos Islands, some 700 miles off the coast.

Guayaquil is a nice enough place and has had a lot of money spent on it in recent years, including a new 3km long waterfront and the regeneration of the small colourful neighbourhood (Las Penas) at the northern end of the waterfront. Along with the beautiful Cathedral and the small park opposite, that kept us busy for a day or so. The small Parque Seminario in front of the Cathedral is a funny place. Surrounded on all four sides by busy roads, it is the surprising home to a colony of dozens and dozens of urban iguanas. They mooch around the park alongside the pigeons and people, relaxing in the grass to catch the sun and hanging from the tree branches overhead. It's a nice place to kill an hour in the sun watching the lizards and the turtles in the pond. The city felt quite safe too, helped by the large armed security presence in public places. Our hotel had an armed security guard, as did the children's clothes shop next door. The KFC on the waterfront had a 'no roller-blades and no guns' policy; in that order!

On the third night, Andy and Amy (who we met diving in Cairns) were flying in to Guayaquil before heading out to the Galapagos the following day, which was a good excuse us all to meet again for a nice dinner out. Our Galapagos research over the last couple of days hadn't gone too well, there was surprisingly little information in the city and on-line searches just brought up massively expensive tours, starting at US$2000 per person upwards. We were considering moving on and trying again from Quito or even giving up on the idea completely, but Andy and Amy (with the help of a couple of bottles of wine or five) persuaded us to fly straight out to the islands to join them and see what we could negotiate when we got there.

We ended up spending a couple of extra days in Guayaquil waiting for the price of the flights to reduce by $200 then made the 700 mile journey and joined them on the island of Santa Cruz. We landed in the old US air force base on the small island of Baltra and via a couple of buses and a boat arrived in Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz - the main tourist hub on the island. Our new tour guides had done a fabulous job of researching the options whilst waiting for us to arrive and had lined up a couple of day-trips for the following two days to other islands to see both land and sea-based wildlife. Thanks guys!

Even within the town of Puerto Ayora though, there is wildlife everywhere: sea-lions asleep on the front, or bothering the fishermen along with loads of massive pelicans; land iguanas catching some rays on the pavements and marine iguanas sharing the rocks with the sea lions and big red crabs. From the small pier we could make out Eagle Rays and small Galapagos Sharks in the waters of the harbour.

The town is also home to the headquarters of the Charles Darwin Research Station and one of the several Giant Tortoise breeding centres in the islands, that was our introduction to these famous animals. Eleven of the twelve species of giant tortoise are found only in the Galapagos and they were in serious danger of extinction following the arrival of people on the islands. As well as being killed for food, accidentally introduced creatures such as rats and fire ants devour young tortoises and their eggs. The breeding centres are partly turning this around, by collecting the eggs from the tortoise nests, incubating them and allowing the youngsters to grow to a big enough size to protect themselves before being returned to the wild. Thousands of tortoises have been bred and released since the 1970s and projects are underway to try and eradicate/control introduced animals and plants to allow the native species a chance to recover - something that will be much more difficult we assume. The breeding centre's most famous resident is Lonesome George, the last of his kind of giant tortoise. Unfortunately, no other tortoises have been found on his island and he has so far refused to mate with the other species. He now shares his home with a couple of females and has another 60 years or so left, so he still has some time to do the deed!

We spent our first two full days on trips to the islands of Floreana to the south and Isabella to the west. These trips brought home just how far apart the islands are spread (each trip was two hours each-way on fast boats) and how many smaller islets and rocks are dotted amongst the bigger islands. As well as seeing some of the land based wildlife, sea-birds and differing terrains, we also got the chance to go snorkelling on each of these trips, coming face-to-face with massive turtles in the shallows off of Floreana and white-tip reef sharks and sea lions off of Isabella. The young sea-lions had great fun chasing each other around us after big-momma had come over and checked us out first. It was an amazing experience to be so close to these graceful acrobatic creatures - they would swim straight at us at speed before veering and somersaulting away. Incredible.

We relocated to the island of San Christobal (enduring a rather wet boat trip) for three days part way through our trip, on the promise of better and cheaper scuba diving. After a day spent cycling down from the highlands of the island and the extinct El Junco volcano to the sea-lion populated beaches, we signed up for a diving trip to Kicker Rock, expecting great things following our snorkelling experience. The day got off to a good start as we snorkelled with some more inquisitive sea-lions before heading out to the dive site. Unfortunately, the visibility wasn't as good as it could have been, greatly reducing our chances of seeing the schools of Hammerhead sharks that are out there somewhere. That disappointment was mitigated by the large numbers of Galapagos Sharks swimming around, an Eagle ray, another couple of turtle encounters and a sea lion shooting past us at 15 metres, chasing fish into the depths. We were also lucky enough to see a Humpback Whale and her calf while en route to the rock. All in all another couple of successful dives - numbers 15 and 16 for our trip!

We spent a fun-filled eight days on the islands with lots of good food and drink and great company before flying back to Guayaquil. It was a great experience and we feel privileged to have been to the Galapagos. The islands themselves are beautiful, ranging from sandy beaches, through lava fields and barren scrub, up to thick cloud forests in the hills. There is an amazing array of wildlife all around. The larger islands are a long way from being untouched by people unfortunately, with coastal towns and farmlands in the interior of some of the islands. As well as feeling privileged to be there, it's also with a pang of guilt at the sight of new hotels being built. Hopefully the stricter measures being implemented by the Ecuadorian authorities and the plans to rehabilitate some of the habitats will preserve the islands for years to come.

And so we are now back on mainland Ecuador. Next update to come soon!

Take care,

Dan & Sue.